International
Negotiations for the truce in Gaza will resume in Doha
Negotiations for the truce in Gaza are scheduled to resume tomorrow, Sunday, in Doha and there will be an Israeli delegation to respond to Hamas’ updated proposal, Egyptian intelligence sources told EFE today.
The source, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of this issue, assured that the new round of talks will take place in Doha and not in Cairo, home of the last consultations, and in them there will be Egyptian, Qatari leaders and a delegation of the Israeli Mossad, without the participation of the Islamist group Hamas.
So far, the Qatari government has not officially confirmed that talks will resume tomorrow in its country.
The Egyptian source close to the negotiations assured that the meeting in Doha will discuss the points of disagreement between the Palestinian and Israeli parties, but it will not be to discuss all the points included in the agreement, since some have been agreed in principle.
He stressed, always according to this source, that the Israeli objections are mainly based on his desire for Hamas to reveal the names of the hostages and the figures of the dead captives.
On the other hand, a Palestinian source in Cairo also aware of the talks pointed out to EFE that the updated draft of Hamas contemplates three phases, instead of two as pointed out the day before.
The first phase provides for an exchange in different stages and a temporary ceasefire that lasts 42 days that later, in the second phase, will become a permanent ceasefire.
In the first phase, the movement conditioned the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Al Rashid Street and from Salah al Din to allow the return of the displaced and the passage of aid to the north of the Gaza Strip, as well as guarantee freedom of movement.
Hamas also offered, according to this source since the Palestinian group has not officially confirmed this information, to release 50 Palestinian prisoners for each living Israeli female soldier, although the informant did not offer more details of the rest of the hostages.
With the start of the second phase, Hamas demands a permanent ceasefire before any exchange of soldiers.
Finally, in the third phase, the proposal includes the implementation of a comprehensive reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the end of the siege.
The mediators will try to press for both parties to reach a ceasefire, which was expected to be achieved before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on March 11.
At least 80 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed by Israeli airstrikes in the last hours in Gaza, medical and local sources told the Palestinian agency Wafa, while the Israeli Army claimed to have killed about thirty Hamas militiamen in the strip.
Waiting for the Gaza Ministry of Health to confirm the total number of fatalities this morning, about 36 people died last night in attacks on two houses in the Nuseirat camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip, sources on the ground told the Palestinian agency.
For its part, the army said it had killed 15 alleged militiamen in Nuseirat “hidden in a sie in Hamas” during an air attack, explains a military statement, which says that the attack was led by the 215º artillery regiment “based on intelligence information.”
The same regiment, the army says, conducted a second airstrike “killing a commander of a squadron of snipers from Hamas” and another militiaman.
The rest of the civilian deaths, mostly women and children, perished in the bombing of a seven-storey residential building “that housed displaced people,” according to Wafa, near the Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, and in another air attack on a house on Al Jalaa Street in the same city.
In addition, five other civilians died and dozens more were injured in an airstrike against a house in the Al Tuffah neighborhood, and a similar bombing caused an undetermined number of deaths and injuries in the Al Nasr neighborhood, both in Gaza City.
In turn, Wafa reported “intense air strikes” on the city of Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Strip, with bombings that also took place against an inhabited house in Rafah, south of the enclave and where more than 1.4 million displaced people take refuge.
In the center of Gaza, Israeli soldiers of the Nahal Brigade, according to the statement, killed “about 10 armed men” on the last day; and in Jan Yunis fighter planes destroyed “a weapons depot” and attacked alleged militiamen.
After more than five months of war, 85% of the Gaza population has been displaced, and 60% of the infrastructure of the Strip, according to UN estimates, is damaged or destroyed, with malnourished babies and little medical assistance due to Israeli attacks.
A Palestinian armed with a rifle was killed this Saturday by Israeli soldiers shot in a cemetery near a Jewish settlement, within the occupied Palestinian city of Hebron, according to a military statement and a video of the event.
An attacker “opened fire on a Jewish community (colony) in the city of Hebron. The terrorist has been neutralized,” said the army, which reported that soldiers comb the area in search of other possible suspects.
The total number of fatalities increased in recent hours to 31,553 and 73,546 injured since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, reported the Ministry of Health controlled by Hamas, after a day of intense attacks in the central area of the enclave.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry insisted on Saturday that Israel must open all the remaining steps that are not yet operational to introduce aid to the Gaza Strip and prevent the humanitarian situation from worsening.
“Egypt continues to do everything possible to improve the access of urgent aid to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing and through aerial launches,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement.
And he asked Israel to “remove the obstacles and restrictions it imposes on the entry of aid through land border crossings, and to put the remaining steps into operation so that more aid is entered and thus prevent the humanitarian situation in Gaza from worsening.”
International
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
The presidential candidate of Ecuador for the indigenous movement, Leonidas Iza, who was part of the wave of protests of 2019 and who led that of 2022, reveals himself as an “anti-system” politician in the face of “a corrupt system” that he intends to reformulate to relieve the impoverished, because he predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in the Government to meet popular demands.
Iza, 42, is the candidate of Pachakutik, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) that he himself presides over, and with which he was at the forefront of the 2022 wave of protests against the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso, where he was arrested and even labeled a “terrorist.”
“I am one of those who has never lost the ability to be outraged when governments have had policies against their own citizens,” Iza, a native of the Andean province of Cotopaxi, said in an interview with EFE.
“I am not against the private sector, I am against those who do not pay taxes and those who come to the Government only to defend their companies,” said the candidate in reference to the last two presidents (Lasso and Daniel Noboa).
“We fight for social justice, not to be violent. It is a reaction to the injustice to which we have been subjected,” he said.
For Iza, who represents the anti-extractivist left of Ecuador, the country has “a corrupt system, a health system that does not work, a deficient and unfair economic system, and public services that are not helping citizens.”
“And that’s what we want to change. We won’t be able to do it overnight, but the State can give relief to the people,” the candidate said.
To do this, it proposes to fight against tax evasion, which amounts to about 7.5 billion dollars a year, and also against corruption, which is estimated at about 3 billion dollars per year, to balance public accounts without having to follow the current credit program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that asks to cut public spending and raise taxes.
He also aimed to increase agricultural productivity, as well as boost tourism to go from 1 to 3 million visitors a year, and anticipated that he will regulate small and artisanal mining to avoid illegal mining but will not allow large-scale mining because it considers that it can contaminate the country’s large river basins.
Iza anticipated that he will not pay the external debt as long as there are “guaguas (children, in Kichwa) who have no education and are dying of hunger, and colleagues who are dying for lack of health.”
“We will tell the IMF and the other multilaterals that we are going to pay, but first we are going to solve the structural problem we have at the moment: education, health and minimum conditions for security,” he warned.
In that sense, Iza pointed out that “the strength of a popular reaction in the streets is accumulating” that must be resolved by whoever is elected. “Knowing my country, which has been on the streets all its life, there will be a popular reaction if (the discomfort) is not resolved in the following months,” he reiterated.
“The option that understands the people is us, and not the sectors that have always been in the Government,” said Iza, who avoided pointing out whether that reaction will reach the dimensions of the strong protests of 2019 and 2022, both led by the indigenous movement.
In this electoral campaign, Iza has left his distinctive Andean red poncho to put on the bulletproof vest in the face of the persistent wave of violence of organized crime that the country is experiencing, because he warned that the “war” that Noboa declared to the criminal gangs has not worked because its leaders are still free.
Faced with this, he promised “a hard hand for all” and recalled that “state institutions must suffocate everyone (criminals)”.
The candidate also advocated deepening international cooperation: “there must be a responsibility of all countries (producers, consumers and drug transit), especially in the region (of Latin America)”.
Asked if Ecuadorian society is ready to have an indigenous president of rural origin, Iza sees himself with popular support to face “the most reactionary sectors that have support in racism and stigmatization.”
International
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
The fire that occurred this morning in a 12-story hotel in a ski resort in northwestern Turkey claimed at least 69 deaths, in addition to causing fifty injuries, according to the latest assessment of the country’s authorities.
The fire originated around 3.30 a.m. local time (0.30 GMT) in a hotel, built entirely of wood, in the Kartalkaya ski center, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara, with almost full occupancy.
The flames were extinguished after about ten hours of firefighters’ work and the authorities found the death of 66 people, in addition to rescuing 51 injured, compared to the 10 dead and 32 injured initially estimated.
The hotel, with 161 rooms, had an occupancy close to 90%, because these days are the winter school holidays in Turkey, says the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.
The wooden construction and the location of the hotel at the foot of a ski slope, which only allows vehicle access from the front facade, made the intervention of firefighters difficult, the Turkish newspaper explained.
According to the television network NTV, about 300 people, including employees, were in the hotel at the time of the fire, the causes of which are still unknown.
International
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
The Islamist organization Hamas urged the Palestinians on Tuesday to intensify and support their militiamen in the clashes against the Israeli Army during the military incursion that began today in Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
“We call on the masses of our people in the West Bank and their revolutionary youth to mobilize and intensify the clashes against the (Israeli) occupation army at all points, and to work to thwart the extensive Zionist aggression against the city of Yenin.”
“This military operation launched by the occupation in Yenin will fail, as did all its previous military operations against our brave people and their tenacious resistance,” the Palestinian group said.
Since the beginning of the operation, nicknamed by the Army “Iron Wall”, at least seven Palestinians have died in Yenin and another 35 have been injured, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Hamas accused the forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling party in the West Bank, of having left Yenin to allow the operation of Israeli troops, instead of defending the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended on Tuesday that the last assault launched by his forces against Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, seeks to “eradicate terrorism.”
“This is another step towards the objective we have set ourselves: to strengthen security in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” according to a statement released by its Office.
“We are acting systematically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it sends its weapons: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” concludes the Israeli president’s note.
The rail comes shortly after the start of the ceasefire in Gaza, which includes a weekly exchange of hostages in the Strip for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Following the release of the prisoners, the Army increased its presence in this occupied territory with seven companies, claiming to strengthen its “anti-terrorist efforts.”
The images recorded in Yenin show dozens of Army vehicles accessing the local refugee camp, which has also been bombed by Israeli aviation.
The incursions and attacks of Israeli forces in Yenin, considered a bastion of Islamist-like militias, were already constant but they worsened after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
However, since mid-December it has been the security forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), which governs small parts of the West Bank, that have led an offensive in this population, which until last Friday triggered armed fighting against the militiamen.
This exchange of fire has caused at least 15 people dead on both sides, including two minors.
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its greatest spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05), and in 2024 at least 491 Palestinians have died in the territory by Israeli fire, most of them militiamen from refugee camps, but also civilians, including at least 75 minors, according to EFE’s count.
So far this year, at least 24 Palestinians have already died in Israeli attacks, five of them minors.
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
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